Archive for the Space clearing
To celebrate the new year, I decided to create my first video! Join me as I share 3 powerful Lifestyle Feng Shui tips to help you change the quality of your life this year. I hope you enjoy it!
SPACE CLEARING FOR THE NEW YEAR
A good time to space clear your home is at the start of a new year. This year, I’d like to share the steps I take when I clear my own home.
Space clearing is a way to instantly shift and transform the subtle, energy or the feeling in your home or workspace.
I believe that our homes mirror and reflect our consciousness, our inner state of being, and the act of clearing or re-aligning the energy in our living spaces shifts our energy and our experience of the energy within our living spaces.
There are seven basic steps to I use when space clearing my home. I usually do the first two steps the day before the clearing.
- Cleaning. I thoroughly clean my home from vacuuming carpets and floors to windows. When everything is clean the energy automatically feels better.
- Personal preparation. After cleaning my home, I make sure to take time to eat a nourishing meal and bathe. I like making this step a bit of a ritual. I love taking an epsom salt bath, (great for clearing toxins from our bodies while grounding us), with a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil added for clarity and focus.
- Preparation. At this stage I create a beautiful display that includes my space clearing tool (I personally love sound instruments – my favorite is a crystal singing bowl), a bowl or vase of fresh flowers, a beautiful table cloth, several candles and a fabulous crystal or semiprecious stone. I use this space to set my intention and to say my house blessing.
- Clearing. There are many ways to clear a space, this is what I do. I begin at my front door and moving clockwise through my home and each room I gently ring my singing bowl as I move through the space, paying attention to the clarity of the singing bowl. If the bowl sounds dull i know to spend more time in this space. When the bowl resonates with a clear tone, I know the area is clear.
- Blessing. Once I’ve cleared my entire home I go back to the front door and begin again. This time as I move through the space with my singing bowl, I also say my blessing, or intention for my home.
- Closing. Once the entire home has been cleared and blessed, I return to my beautiful display and I state the blessing once again as I close the ceremony.
- The final step is sealing my intention or blessing into my home. I do this by placing the vase of flowers on my kitchen table. The flowers represent vibrant, living energy and reinforce the power of the clearing. Their beauty embraces the beauty of my intention and blessing.
© 2012 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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Last week hurricane and gale force winds and rain raged through much of Eastern Seaboard. For many it was a disaster, ancient trees were toppled, homes were damaged by falling trees or flooded by rain. It was an incredible sight to see and experience. And now that the clean up is well under way, it’s an opportunity to begin again; time for a new start, a new look and a new direction.
What can feng shui do to help? Feng shui can help create the feeling, the atmosphere you desire in your home, in your yard and in your life. Feng shui is about balance. Balance in our living environments and balance in our lives. And at times like this balance is what we all need.
For your yard – clear out all storm debris, trim broken branches and shrubs, cut down broken or damaged trees and then before you begin replanting, gift your land with a healing ceremony. This doesn’t have to be complicated, a simple moment of silent gratitude while focusing on your intention for your home is enough to begin the healing process. And if you’d like to make it more of a ceremony, consider adding a sprinkle of sparkling spring water charged by the power of the sun to support adaptability, fluidity and a new beginning.
For those of you that have suffered flooding and water damage, doing a ceremony that incorporates water may seem counter-intuitive. It’s not, water is the source of all life, of abundance and holds the cleansing power of new beginnings – exactly what’s needed now. (Water charged by the sun combines the transformative power of fire, the spark of life, and the nourishing and healing power of water.)
This is also the perfect time to incorporate a feng shui assessment of your property, making improvements to the landscape and yard visually as well as energetically. As stewards of the land on which we live it is up to us to help our land heal – on all levels, and that begins with our thoughts and how we ‘feel’ about our living spaces.
For your home – if you had damage, clear out any items that were ruined or broken. And then, before you rearrange or purchase new items, incorporate the power of a feng shui consultation and space clearing into the process! Create a home that embraces you with a sense of comfort, welcome, style and inspiration. It’s more than how it looks, it’s how it feels!
Paint your walls a fresh new color; pastel, bold or mid-tone, anything new will add a sense of vitality to your home. Arrange your furniture in a different way, move things from one room to another, mix it up, have fun! Simple changes like this will go far in helping you release the stress of the situation.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Every cloud has a silver living.” Ever wonder what that saying means? It means that after hardship, after a challenge, there is always opportunity. True, it may be difficult to see opportunity when we are caught up in the drama of the situation, but opportunity is always there. We just have to look for it. Incorporating feng shui can help in the process. Getting you and your home back to balance quicker and with greater ease.
© 2011 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
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Happy Thanksgiving. Today’s post is a fun, light post to send you into the holiday weekend. I wish you a happy holiday, full of joy, good cheer, good food and most of all, good company! Good food, family and friends what could be better? (Be sure to click on the blue links to hear the music that inspires me.) Enjoy! 
I love music. Music has the power to touch me deeply and to magically transport me back in time. Every song seems to have a story and a memory connected to it.
Music can be a powerful Feng Shui tool. There is meaning in the message, beauty and inspiration in the melody and harmony and balance in the song itself. It is truly a multi-sensory experience. And it can be used to clear stagnant energy from a room.
Music can be used to instill a sense of joy and whimsy into a space. And it can be used to inspire and motivate us and there are lots of songs and different types of music that can do this for me.
Here are a few of my all time favorites. Des’ree, Bon Jovi, Idina Mendzel, Seal. All remarkably different and yet all make me snap my fingers and dance while they touch my heart in their own way.
When I teach Instinctive Feng Shui, I find that the power of music reaches across age, socio-economic experience and even preference - the power of music connects us all in the moment, in the magic, in the message of the music itself.
Close your eyes the next time you hear your favorite song and let the music uplift your spirit and send you soaring into a place of connection, introspection and harmony. A perfect Feng Shui moment!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include the copyright and link above.
We are profoundly influenced by the spaces we inhabit. Our homes have an enormous impact on our state of mind. They can be places that uplift us and bring us a sense of joy. And they can be places that drain our energy and create a sense of unease.
We’ve all had the experience of walking into a room after an argument and the room felt uncomfortable. The energy in the room felt thick and heavy – the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
And we’ve also experienced spaces that felt warm, comforting and inviting. Space clearing raises the vibration, the energy within a space literally liberating old stagnant energy and imprints and replacing them with fresh, vibrant, nurturing energy.
Space clearing is a way to instantly shift and transform the subtle, energy or the feeling in your home or workspace.
Space clearing is a term first used by Denise Linn in the early 90’s. It is an integral branch of Interior Alignment®.
In Interior Alignment® we believe our homes aren’t simply four inanimate walls. We believe our homes mirror and reflect our consciousness, our inner state of being, and the act of clearing or re-aligning the energy in our living spaces shifts our energy and our experience of the energy within our homes.
As Denise Linn states in her book Sacred Space, “Homes as well as people are nourished by how we hold them in our hearts. They have a living spirit that is sustained through the reverence and love that we hold for them. Without that care they become inanimate and lifeless; the spirit recedes and they become merely physical structures that can neither sustain or nurture us.”
Space clearing can help you:
- Release old emotions
- After an illness
- After a move or life change
- After an argument
- After remodeling
- Release recurring patterns of behavior
- Increase vitality
- Enhance the quality of your life and living environment
There are four basic steps to Space Clearing.
- Preparation
- Purification
- Invocation
- Preservation
Preparation. It is important to take time before the clearing process to establish your intention - what it is you’d like to achieve or change by clearing your space. Your intention is your most powerful ally and the most powerful tool you can use to re-align your living spaces. Without intention, all actions are hollow and meaningless – like going through the motions.
With intention your actions have purpose, clarity and direction. There is meaning and power in everything you do.
This is also the place to incorporate a bit of clutter clearing. I know, you’re thinking, “Oh no, not clutter again!” Clearing clutter is an on-going process and one that is particularly helpful prior to space clearing. It’s good to release items that are no longer useful, needed or desired. This way we have made space for the change we desire and our space clearing actions will be more effective. (For more information about the clutter clearing process, click here.)
Purification. This is the actual clearing or re-alignment process. There are many different methods and techniques you can use to clear a space.
Some are:
- Incense
- Smudge or sage
- Sound instruments (drums, bells, etc.)
- Water
- Crystals
- Salt
My personal favorites are sound instruments. I love how the resonance of instruments expands and fills a space as the energy is re-aligned. You can actually hear the difference!
The actual tool you use is less important than establishing your intention – any tool will work. Choose a tool that aligns with you, one that feels comfortable and natural for you to use.
Before beginning, stand in silence with your eyes closed. Breathe in and out slowly; focus your thoughts on your intention and the energy of the room. With each breath, feel your energy expanding and becoming more powerful. When you feel ready, begin to move through each room in a clockwise manner, releasing stagnant energy as you move through the room.
Invocation. After you’ve cleared the stagnant energy from a room, return to the doorway of the room and once again close your eyes and focus your thoughts and breath on filling the space with positive, uplifting energy. Put your intention into the space. You can do this with the use of an affirmation, a house blessing or dedication or simply by giving thanks for all this is good in your life.
Preservation. This is the Feng Shui step! To maintain the energy and clarity of the clearing it’s good to create a physical affirmation. This can be many things, just about anything, as long as the item has meaning for you and represents your intention for your home.
Objects hold the energy you give them, positive or negative. It is the power of your association with things that empowers them. So, the actual object chosen is less significant than your association with it.
Choose objects that resonate with you, objects that fit seamlessly into your personal sense of style and your spaces. If I can look around your home and see ‘Feng Shui cures’, you haven’t selected the right items. The best Feng Shui is the Feng Shui you feel, not the Feng Shui you see. And the only way for Feng Shui adjustments to feel right is when they fit into the space in which they are used and they look like they belong there!
Some things you can use are:
- A crystal
- A written affirmation put into a place of honor.
- Placing a written affirmation in the soil of a plant – then every time you water the plant envision that you are nourishing or energizing your intention.
- A beautiful lamp
- New positioning of your furnishings to reenergize and realign your space with your intention
- An accessory that you LOVE that supports the energy of your intention
- A picture or piece of art symbolizing your intention
- A beautiful, lush plant
- A home altar
- Any object that symbolizes your intention
The energy of a place is created in part by the people who have been there, past events, past emotions and the energy patterns inherent in our style of building.
Energy doesn’t flow with ease in corners, which is why these areas tend to create pockets of stagnation or dull energy. There simply isn’t any movement.
10 Simple ways to uplift the energy in your home
- Clean and vacuum
- Clear clutter
- Clean the windows
- Replace old, burned out light bulbs
- Open the windows; let fresh air flow into your home
- Spritz your rooms with essential oils (lemon, lavender, eucalyptus and pine are wonderful for this)
- Burn incense or use an essential oil diffuser
- Light a candle
- Add fresh flowers or a beautiful plant
- Play inspiring music
Space clearing re-aligns the energy in our spaces, creating movement and vitality in place of stuck, stagnant energy.
When the spaces around us are nurturing and supportive our quality of life improves.
And that’s a good thing!
© 2010 Harmony Life®, LLC by Laurie Bornstein
Feng Shui Lifestyle™ articles, tips and conversation http://www.fengshuilifeandstyle.com
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE?
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